In known methods and arrangements of this kind, use is made of long-stator linear motors (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,654, DE 199 22 441 A1) which include, as a primary member, a long stator which is laid out longitudinally of a given track and which has at least one long-stator winding (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,665,329, 4,728,382) in which a travelling electromagnetic field, which advances in the direction of movement of the vehicle to be operated, is generated. What acts as a secondary member on the other hand is an exciter arrangement which is mounted on the vehicle and generally extends for the entire length of the latter (e.g. DE 34 10 119 A1) and which is composed of electromagnets which also act as supporting magnets. The long-stator winding is usually sub-divided into a plurality of winding sections which are situated directly behind one another in the direction of travel, which are separated from one another electrically by changeover points and which, although at lengths of 1000 m to 2000 m for example they are comparatively short, are still considerably longer than the vehicle, which may for example be up to 250 m long. Laid out parallel to the track there are also a plurality of comparatively long (e.g. approx. 20 km long) track-segment cables (or track cables) which are connected at one end (=single feed) or at both ends (=double feed) to so-called sub-stations in which the voltage sources, in the form of converters, local control means and the like, required for supplying the long-stator winding with current and voltage are installed. To limit energy consumption and the effective impedance, it is only ever those winding sections in which the vehicle is situated at the time which are supplied with current, which is done by connecting the individual winding sections individually and in succession to assigned track-segment cables and voltage sources, with the help of switching means, in line with the movement of the vehicle. Appropriate changeover means may be provided for the connections between the track-segment cables and the voltage sources (DE 29 32 764 A1). When a magnetically levitated vehicle of this kind is being operated, the voltage sources supply voltages which are substantially equal to the sum of the voltage induced by the vehicle (inductor voltage), the voltage drop across the relevant winding section and the voltage drop across the associated part of the track-segment cable.
Because of the mode of operation which has been described, the driving means, i.e. the motor for the magnetically levitated vehicle is sub-divided into a plurality of motor regions which follow one another in the direction of the track. Each motor region contains at least one track-segment cable, winding sections assigned to the track-segment cable, and at least one voltage source connected to the track-segment cable for the supply of energy. There can in this case, for practical and technical reasons, only ever be one magnetically levitated vehicle in each motor region, i.e. a succeeding vehicle may not enter a motor region until a preceding vehicle has left the said motor region. The vehicle concentration and hence the timetable or the time intervals with which the vehicles at the maximum permitted frequency can be operated, are therefore preset by the length of a motor region and can no longer be changed once a magnetically levitated railway has been built.
In the practical application of magnetic levitation railways of this kind, a requirement has arisen for additional special journeys to be provided between the scheduled journeys and the timing of services to be made shorter, and in particular to be halved (e.g. from 10 mins to 5 mins), at least on selected parts of the track. However, with the methods and arrangements of the kind specified in the opening paragraph which have become known hitherto, this is possible, at best, by halving the length of the motor regions and doubling the number of voltage sources. This is not in any way acceptable in view of the considerable increase in the cost of installation that it involves and the fact that a need for special unscheduled journeys generally only exists for a certain time, i.e. at given times of day or when there are unforeseen traffic conditions.